Patricia Mou

Here, then, are some methods for becoming happier: If you suffer from serious illness, depression, anxiety, paranoia, schizophrenia, or other serious problems, seek professional help first. Develop the skills and habits associated with extroversion. Improve your self-esteem and optimism. Improve your agreeableness. Improve your conscientiousness. D... See more

The apparent happiness of Africans, against all horror, seems to derive from a sense of connectedness, or as the Zulu put it, "ubunto." This word is often translated to mean community, but one of them gave me what I think is a more accurate definition: "I am because we are; we are because I am."

In other words, their pursuit of happiness seems more successful than ours because it is not a solitary endeavor. African happiness is a joint enterprise, something that can only be created by the whole. I am happy because we are happy. Much contentment arises from a sense of family, community, and connectedness.

Most of us, however, develop a portfolio of meaning – we have multiple sources of it in our lives, and cannot in fact derive it from only one source any more than we can be healthy on a diet of bread and water.

A number of observational studies have indicated that volunteering is associated with improvements in various aspects of well-being. In some sense, volunteering and regularly participating in various volunteering activities and organizations is a commitment to repeated acts of kindness, generally directed to an important goal of improving the life... See more